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love is complicated. It is as frail and fleeting as human emotion and at the same time it is strong as the grave. It has been fought over and it has brought unity. It's name is thrown around without regard to the severity of it's potential. How can we attempt to tame a word with so much power? How much blood has been shed under the twisted veil of a of this concept, and how many tears have fallen as we have began to approach the understanding of it? How do we manage to take such a deep and powerful miracle and tame it down to suit our own needs and preferences. Song of Songs 8:6 & 7 speak of something severe. Many waters cannot quench love in spite of the intense burning it produces. How do we return to this place? I think there is an answer. We must be rooted in the source of love. Untainted love. When we begin to label things love that are not rooted in the source, we begin to see corruption and we see how far an imitation of love will bring us, which ultimately leads to frustration and tragedy. If we believe that God is love, and that love is important, then we believe developing a deeper understanding of God is of value. Love is complicated, because it is bigger than us. How are we to understand it? This is the beautiful part; we are loved by God regardless of our perception or understanding of God and therefore Love. All we are to do is accept. Accepting is more important than understanding. Things no longer follow a logical predictable structure when it comes to Love. We can "feel" or "sense" love.. but we also see love as it manifests itself outwardly. Why is the first commandment to love God? Without this acceptance, we are unable to carry out the second commandment, which is just like it "to love others". Loving others is a reaction of accepting/loving God. To love God is to love others. God is Love. What an extreme concept. Love took on human form in Christ. Love was put to death on behalf of humankind. Love was resurrected and overcame death. Love is stronger than death. The Spirit of Love has been sent as a counselor and with this resurrected Spirit of Love we are able to do more than the incarnate form of Love that was sacrificed on our behalf. And all we need to do is accept.

Christian Movement

The more I think of that pairing of words the more I become convinced that it has become an oxymoron. I strongly believe, however that this was not always the case. The term "Christian" has taken on collateral meaning over time. This is normal. What is abnormal about the term "Christian" is the amount of deviation that has occurred with this particular noun-turned-adjective. Something that began as a movement and stood for a new and better life with a focus around eternal salvation through Christ's sacrifice and the displaying of God's Kingdom and values in followers lives, has now come to mean an establishment of like-minded people bound together in a stationary posture by a set of positive moral ideals. Why did the movement stop moving? When did this change occur? Why has it persisted? More importantly, how can we move again? Forgetting the preliminary questions and moving to the latter, in order to create an identity based on action a movement must first have a unified and understood purpose, because action without purpose is chaos. The activity that forms the group’s identity must be based in something untainted, relevant, and sustainable. In the Christian Movement, this basis is the Gospel of Christ. Now if this is not interpreted and applied it will maintain its identity as a source of movement but will not be, on its own, a movement. Complicated? If you are still tracking with me at this point then carry on, if not... go back and read again.

So, how can we move again? The answer to this question cannot be stated simply. When are complicated predicaments ever solved that way? This is something that will take individual initiative throughout a corporate body. We (Followers of The Way) are all responsible for the perpetuation of the Gospel in practical terms. In order to understand our salvation we must understand more deeply our sin and our Saviour. Derek Webb says "If your sin is small your Saviour is small". What this implies, is that without a legitimate and deep conviction and acknowledgment of actual and specific sin in our lives we are unable to truly appreciate and therefore react to our deliverance from that sin. Our "salvation". The expression of faith is based on our acceptance of and need for our Saviour. This is a summary, of the deeper understanding of our sin. How can we have a life of freedom if we cannot name what we have been freed from?

Christianity is a reaction. I react to what my Saviour has done for me. I react to my freedom and the new life that has been given to me. I react to being reunited to my Heavenly Father and desire to show others a different way of life. The movement is a reaction. This implies that its roots are found apart from the action itself. It is a response. In order to move we must respond. In order to respond we must know what we are responding to. How we respond is very personal and specific and at the same time it is corporate. The response consists of many small seprate parts of a larger corporate body moving toward the same goal and reacting from the same source. That is a movement.

Same Church: Different Job

Dear Reader,

After a long year of learning and growing in my new mission field I have been brought into a new refreshing season of life. I had been working in the Student Ministry Dept at North Heights, where I worked with students in 7th-12th grade. This is a rather large sized group, consisting of somewhere around 600 students. I had a transition within Student Ministry where I became the Missions and Events Coordinator, being placed in charge of all o f the retreats and camps as well as all local and international outreach experiences for students in 7th-12th grade. Long story short: my job has undergone another change and I now work in the Global Ministries Dept. at North Heights, where I am the Outreach Ministries Coordinator for the Emerging Generation. The "Emerging Generation" consists of the Children's Ministry Dept, Student Ministry Dept, and College Age Ministry Dept. So, basically, I get to help coordinate local and international outreach opportunities throughout the entire church, with a special focus in College age and younger. Pretty sweet deal. I work with two other great people in the Outreach Dept. and am excited about what is happening at North Heights in the area of outreach. Lately I have been busy trying to connect our Student Ministry and College Age ministry with a couple of different ministries in Minneapolis. Things have been going well with this and I am particualrly excited about the partnership between our College age ministry and SOURCE, in MPLS. So, a new page has been revealed and I am thrilled to see what happens as the story unfolds. Something seems very right about this change.

Update!

Dear Reader,

It has been a little while since I last gave an update.

MissionTwinCities

MTC was a spectacular success. I believe that deep connections were made in the students hearts and minds. Watching the Holy Spirit tie everything together was a breathtaking ordeal. I have heard many positive comments from students and leaders. One leader said "This is the best missions experience I have had with North Heights".. and he had been on several to Mexico, Guatemala, India.. so I feel as though he knew what he was saying. Praise God. This was an extremely challenging week for students as well as leaders. I would argue that MissionTwinCities was the most demanding opportunity we have had for our adult leaders, and they did an amazing job. It was a week of information, service, worship, love and growth. I am excited to see how the students involved will continue to live out what hey have learned. Love God and Love others.

Summer Programs

We recently finished our big Summer programs. A week long summer camp for students in grades 7-9 and a weekend retreat for students in grades 10-12. They were both wonderful but in very different ways.
The Camp was a lot of fun.. so much fun in fact that I couldnt accurately describe it in a blog.. but trust me.. it was a blast. It was also a great opportunity for me to get to know some of the students who are new to our program since it is the first opportunity that 7th graders have to hang out with us. The week was filled with small group time, big games, teaching times, campfire services, skits, fun activities, sugar, and a lot of laughter. The whole week is designed to give the students a welcoming environment where they can learn more about what it means to follow Christ. It was certainly a great week.
The retreat was so beautiful. Many of the same students who went to MTC also went to this retreat. So it was awesome to keep on building relationships and hanging out with these great students. This was one of the smallest retreats we have had in years, with about 30 students attending. That is a great number for building community. Also with the students being in 10th -12th grade you are able to have some wonderful conversations and work through some deep issues. I loved this retreat. Those students are just amazing and I love getting to work with them. I was also able to teach one of the sessions. The theme for the retreat was "Open Spaces", where we talked about the importance of creating space in our lives for God. I was one of three speakers for the retreat and I talked about how when we create space in our lives for God we become part of a Holy Revolution, a drastic and far reaching change in our thoughts and actions. Something very near and dear to my heart. We also have big games, and a lot of funny during the weekend, but the highlights of this retreat were those things you cannot plan for.

Other Things

So, overall the Summer programs went wonderfully and you can see some pictures if you click the "pictures" link on my sidebar.. (once you get to the page the pics are in the "my current mission field" folder)

Things have slowed down just a little bit now, which is a nice change of pace, and we are preparing for our upcoming program year and all the changes we have planned for it. A few of those big changes... we haven't had a Coordinator for our Senior High Ministry since May and we just hired someone into that position. Her name is Kalley, and yes.. she is the Kalley you are thinking about. She will be starting up in the next couple weeks as we start getting the year rolling. This will put me as the only male youth staff member paired up with 5 ladies... pray for me. My job title has also undergone a change, I am now the Student Ministry Missions and Events Coordinator. Yes.. the word "Missions" is in my title.. it seems like a good direction :) It is a brand new position and it will be fun to figure out exactly what it looks like (so for my friends in other countries, I may see you soon!). Some other fun little chunks of my life include.. I have dreds in again! It was a long time coming but they are n again and looking pretty sweet, if I do say so... I am registered to take my last class for college, that's right! The Biology class will be completed this Fall, and then I will be a graduate!... I am also scheduled to get my Motorcycle license at the beginning of September, strictly to keep up my "bad boy" image... I am still living in Saint Paul and loving that, I have mastered the art of smoking babyback ribs (delicious)... I am writing and playing music for recreation, I got another ear piercing (bad boy.. remember?)... I am excited for this next year and I will keep you all updated as things move along! Love and Peace be with all of you! May God bless you and keep you, make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, may he look upon you with favor and Give you His peace.

-Andres

Love, love, love.

MTC DETAILS

From June 15th through the 20th (Sunday through Friday) myself and about 45 participants (leaders included) from FirePower (our senior high youth group) will be living and working in Minneapolis (Minnesota). This week is designed to build relationships with our partner ministries in the city and also to give the students opportunities to grow in this act of worship through experience and through teachings. The group is split into three teams, each team assigned to one of three ministries for the week. The ministries are; Parakletos, The Fallout, and Union Gospel Mission. During the day the students will be working with and learning from their experience with the ministries. During the evenings we will have some teachings designed to educate the students with a biblical perspective on issues such as; Human Rights, Oppression, Social Justice, and Poverty. The purpose of this week is to serve God, bless our partner ministries, and create opportunities for our students to grow in compassion. Please pray for us!

$0.02

I have been learning about love. loving others, to be specific. A pretty important thing, being one of the greatest commandments with the other being to love God with the entirety of your being. So how have I been learning these things? Well I am glad you asked. You will be happy to hear that my life has become even more inconvenienced than it had been. I have been intentionally learning about human ecology, social justice and human rights - which just so happen to be directly tied to my belief in God and my belief that God cares about people and wants his people to be loved and restored. Knowledge is responsibility. Now I am stuck with this inconvenient knowledge and need to figure out how I am to respond to it, and the worst part is that I keep going back for more. That's right. I will have even more burdensome responsibility as I continue being informed. frick. Not only that, but I will be sharing this information with students who will then need to process the information and potentially have their lives messed up by having compassion take root in their hearts. frick. I mean seriously, peoples lives will be so disrupted by this venomous information, but the truth of it is.. it is a beautiful complication. I am learning more in order to act and to inform others. Change can happen but it needs to be something more than just wearing a trendy rubber bracelet around our wrist. It will happen when the hand attached to that wrist is willing to sacrifice for the love of God and for the sake of others. This is compassion. This is not convenient. This is loving others intentionally. You cannot do this on your own. This is not focused on personal gain. This is love. love. love. Love is all you need.

One-armed John and the trip to Ohio.

I recently went on a mini road trip from Minnesota to Ohio. Laura from my DTS was getting married, so Miranda (also from my DTS) and I headed over to Ohio for the weekend! Road Trip! Ohio is a solid 12 hour drive from Minnesota, so we left at around 10pm on a Thursday night. the plan was to drive through the night arrive in Cleveland (where the wedding was) in the morning, stay with my Buddy Owen ( from college), get some rest and head to the rehearsal dinner Friday evening. Makes sense, right? I thought so to. Well sometimes you need to be flexible. The trip started out great, as most road trips do. Some wonderful conversation, good music, tasty treats. A good start. Well, I was not as well rested as I should have been for that late night drive and neither was Miranda. In spite of that, I ended up driving for around 10 hours without any real problems. We burned through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and we were just 8 miles away from Ohio... when it happened. Yes... it. It happened. The legendary "it" that all road trips should happen. the "it" that changes a trip into an adventure.. a weekend into a memory... "it". As the sun was beginning to rise and we were ridiculously close to our destination state.. Safety Jeep (my vehicle) died... It began with the battery struggling to produce enough juice to keep my headlights bright, eventually my speedometer would stop functioning, this would lead to Safety Jeep stopped completely, on the side of the road, so close to Ohio and so far away. It was 7:30 am. We were stranded in the quaint town of Angola, Indiana. Thank God for AAA. A tow truck was sent to rescue us. Deek, the friendly tow truck driver picked us up. He not only hauled Safety, Miranda, and me to the service shop, he also was a comedian. At least he thought so. He would crack jokes and make commentary. He would laugh at his jokes, Miranda would smile uncomfortably, I would also laugh.. not at his jokes, but at the situation. We learned about Deeks childhood, the conspiracy theory of the firework shop owner, how to brighten a toll booth workers day, and everything else you would expect to learn from a guy named Deek in a situation like that. So it was a humorous start. We pulled into the shop and a handful of guys began immediately working on my car. I was encouraged by this, I though.. at this rate we should be out of here in no time.. How wrong I was. I don't know where everyone else went, but after a couple hours had passed and I had memorized the details of every picture and newspaper clipping on the waiting room wall, I decided to check on Safety Jeep myself. At this point there was a lone mechanic working on my car. His name was John. He had one arm. well, to be fair.. he had two arms- but only one of them was functional the other was more like decoration, so in reality.. he had one arm. Now, don't get me wrong. I think it is great that somebody would overcome the odds and do what John does. However, John was having a hard time. i don't think this was really the Cinderella story of a guy rising above the challenges placed before him and achieving a great feat of humankind. I think it was a one armed mechanic named John, with the mouth of a sailor and the determination of a brick, working on Safety Jeep for a long, long time. I actually had the privilege of working on Safety with John for a little bit, which is not always the case when you are paying to have the work done. It was educational. Well, after a new alternator, battery, belt, blackened lungs from secondhand smoke, broken minds from lack of sleep, new friends in Angola, and about 4 hours... we were on the road again. We made it to Ohio without any other problems! We met up with Owen an hour before the rehearsal dinner, had a great time. Went to the dinner, saw some friends I hadn't seen in a couple years, had a great time. Went rock climbing Saturday morning and then got some ice cream before going to the wedding, had a great time! Celebrated at the reception with wonderful food and amazing people while dancing the night away. It was an amazing weekend! We left on Sunday morning and made it back to Minnesota without any problems at all. It was a fun adventure of a weekend, and if you are ever in Angola, Indiana, make sure to stop by Gold Star Towing and tell our friends hi! And that, as they say, is that.

Homesick...

As I sit in my big office in a mega-church wannabe of a building I feel exhausted and uncomfortable. there is no dirt under my fingernails, I have a belly full of food, a mini-fridge a foot away from me, I am parasite free, I have a steady income.. all that stuff. But I am uncomfortable and entirely too homesick. I miss my Latin American homeland and am looking forward very much to the time when I will be able to return there and be refreshed, surrounded by loved ones in that distant land that feels so much like home. It is rather funny that God would call me to serve where I am currently at. It makes sense though. I have been stretched in ways I would not have otherwise been... I am totally fine being called to travel South America with faith, prayers, and a shoestring, but call me to work in the suburbs at a big ol' church.. now that is a challenge. I don't mean to sound as though I am complaining. I don't think it is as much not being content with where I am at as it is anticipating being back with my loved ones in Latin America. I do have a deep peace that offsets any desire to just head back to Panama or Argentina, and I am seeing more clearly why God has called me to serve at this church. he has been faithful in providing me with all that I need here. I am surrounded by people who love me, my co-workers in the youth dept. are amazing and I am blessed by them daily, and I am definitely growing in all of this. I have also been able to pioneer the city outreach opportunites which had been given the title "Beyond Belief's".. We just had one this last weekend and another is scheduled for April 19th hopefully working with The Fallout.. a ministry started up in Minneapolis by a former Ywammer. So to those of you in those places I long for... I miss you and love you and pray that in God's timing our paths will cross again. Well.. thanks for reading this, and may the peace of God which goes far beyond our understanding maintain your hearts and your minds through faith in Christ Jesus.

-Andres